Nina Revoyr

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - An award-winning author who writes about discrimination and racial tension based on her personal experiences will speak at California Lutheran University at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 27.

“An Evening with Nina Revoyr” will be held in Lundring Events Center on the Thousand Oaks campus.

Revoyr was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and white American father and grew up in Tokyo, Wisconsin and Los Angeles. She spent much of her childhood with her paternal grandparents in Wisconsin. Her latest novel, “Wingshooters,” is a fictionalized account of her experiences as a child. Set in a small town in Wisconsin in the 1940s, the story revolves around the inability of the townspeople to accept anyone who is different.

Published last March, “Wingshooters” was one of Booklist’s Books of the Year, an O: Oprah Magazine’s “Books to Watch For” and winner of an Indie Booksellers’ Choice Award and Midwest Booksellers Choice Award.

Her previous novels, “The Necessary Hunger,” “Southland” and “The Age of Dreaming,” focus on racial tensions in Los Angeles, interracial couples, the Watts riots and racial discrimination in silent films. “Southland” was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and “Best Book of 2003,” a Book Sense 76 pick, an Edgar Award finalist, and winner of the Ferro Grumley Award and the Lambda Literary Award. “The Age of Dreaming” was a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Revoyr is the executive vice president of Children’s Institute Inc., a child and family service agency in Los Angeles. She has also been an associate faculty member at Antioch University and a visiting professor at Cornell University, Occidental College and Pitzer College. She is co-editor of the college textbook “Literature for Life: A Thematic Introduction to Reading and Writing.

CLU’s Center for Equality and Justice, Pearson Library and Multicultural Programs and International Student Services are sponsoring the free event.

Lundring Events Center is in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, which is on the north side of Olsen Road near Mountclef Boulevard. For more information, contact Yen Tran at nttran@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3092.